Theme: Never Easy - CG5
Calli closed her eyes and took a deep breath trough her nose as she staggered back, the water sloshing against her ankles.
"Keep your focus, or you're never going to get this."
The girl gave a dark glare at the snake on her right. This night marked the fifth night in a row that she'd gotten to the bloody jungle and from the second night the snake, she now knew was named Inizio, had been pestering to train her. She'd agreed only to get him off her back and because she might as well do something useful with if she was to come here every night. Truth to be told, she had gotten better with her shield thanks to that, not that she would ever tell him.
The redhead resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "The only reason I'm even listening to ye is because i'm stuck here until I wake up."
"And there is your problem. No motivation." Inizio slithered forward, his stern gaze on her.
He gave her one last look, as if deciding what to do with her. The redhead took a few careful steps back, she felt as if he was trying to look into her soul. Eventually Inizio turned away and went to stand on the opposite side of the clearing. As he did she noticed a small red light flowing after him.
Inizio turned to the light and gave it a nod. The red light moved along with his head and dashed into the water without a splash.
Calliope gave the snake a confused look as nothing seemed to happen. As she opened her mouth to ask what he was planning as the water suddenly seemed to move, swirling and taking shape. It seemed to be something humanoid, it's body completely made out of the clear water. The red light was swirling in it's chest, right where a human heart would be.
Staring at the creature, Calli absent-mindedly put her hand over her own chest as she got a sinking feeling what the red light had been. A soul. it was a soul. The same thing that had brought her to life, but The creature gave her no further time to question her own existence as it charged at her.
Her eyes widened as she just managed to dodge it, jumping out of the way the best she could in the wet sand and readied her daggers. The creature sucked up the water and used it to stretch out his arm, trying to punch her from far away. Calli dove under it, using the time it needed to recompose to plunge her dagger in the creature's head. The water just seperated when the metal blade made contact with it and only seconds later she found herself a few feet away on her back in the water.
"I don't know why i'd thought that would work." the girl deadpanned as the water next to her started to bubble. Her eyes widened and she jumped up, deploying a shield right before right before another jet of water hit her.
Inizio decided to voice his wisdom. "This isn't a battle to train your offence. Focus and blend into the shadows."
"I don't even know what that means!" she huffed as she jumped up. "At least not how ye put it i don't."
"Breathe and feel the shadows around you, imagine you can disappear into them. Use them to flee your opponent."
Finding a moment to actually do so, Calli managed to stand and take a deep breath. Opening her senses and actually doing as he told her.
A loud crash of glass breaking snapped Calli out of her staring at the window, tossing her book to the ground. She was tired and hadn't been sleeping well due to all the midnight/dream training. She had actually managed to pull off the "shadow-walking" once, before failing another twenty times. Her eyes slowly focussed on Lloyd staring at the ground and a broken lightbulb in anger, it seemed that Jay was trying to teach him how to control his electricity.
"Are you okay?" her head snapped up to see Kai standing next to her. "You've been out of it lately, was your date that bad."
The redhead gave him a dark look. She didn't mind the fact he had caught her and Cole after coming back, heck he even promised to keep his mouth shut, What she did mind, was him taking every opportunity to pester the two of them.
"No." She answered honestly, grabbing her book from the floor.. "Just having trouble sleeping, not that that's anything new."
Kai picked up she wasn't saying anything else about it and instead went to change the subject. "You found anything else about Homunculi?"
The girl opened her mouth to answer but didn't get a chance to do so as Nya barged into the room. "Hey, Guys!"
"Hey, Nya." Jay answered before anyone else could.
The raven-haired girl smiled at him. "Hi, Jay. Uh.." She stammered a bit. "Wanna come by the auto body shop later?"
The blue ninja raised his eyebrow. "The auto body shop?"
"Yeah," Nya stated proudly, raising her head a bit higher. "I got a par-time job, Though I could fix up the Ultra sonic raider in my off-time. Maybe if you come over i can show you what I've been working on."
Both Calli and Kai snickered as Jay's cheeks turned red at the not so subtile hint. "I'd say ye want to save those teases for yer sister and him." The redhead joked as she leaned towards the Red Ninja.
Jay, having heard the girl, coughed and pretended to to have heard them."Uh, Sure, he." He answered before noticing the letter in her hand and was glad for a change of subject. "What you got there?"
Nya blinked once before realising what he was talking about. "Oh, This letter came from Lloyd." She handed the white envelope to Wu.
The elder man scanned the letter over quickly as the others joined him. "It's from Lloyd's old school." He noted.
Cole raised his eyebrow. "The Darkly School for Bad Boys?"
Wu nodded. "Formerly Bad boys. Since last time we where there, they've changed to Darkly school for Great children."
Kai snickered before the words actually sunk in. "Wait. They've turned good?"
"We've been there before? What'd I miss?" Calli asked at the same time.
Wu shushed them at the same time. "It says here there's going to be a ceremony."
Cole's face lit up directly, getting an enthusiastic glimmer in his eye. "I love ceremonies. That means there's going to be cake."
Calli couldn't help but snicker at her boyfriend, making him stick his tongue out at her.
"Lloyd's change inspired them. Now they've invited Lloyd to give him an honorary degree in excellence." The elder man continued like nothing happened. At the same time, the said kid broke the broom he was supposed to clean with and bumped face first into the punching bag.
Kai shook his head with a small smile. "Are we sure we're talking about the same Lloyd?"
Calli could say one thing as they made their way towards the school. She was glad she still had her bike at the ready. Especially when Lloyd crashed the ultra-dragon into the ground. She had changed back into her warrior outfit. Tough she had changed the usual sleeves for a long sleeved black shirt under her tunic.
"At least I'm getting better." Lloyd beamed.
"All the same." Cole breathed. "I'll take the reins going home. Just to be save."
Calli grinned as she put the bike-ring back on her back. "Had a nice flight?" She joked only to receive four angry glares.
At the same time a boy about Lloyd's age ran to meet them.
"Lloyd?"
The blond raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Brad?"
"You came! It's so good to see you." The boy, Brad, exclaimed.
Lloyd didn't buy it. "It is? you put fire-ants in my bed."
Brad paled somewhat. "Please forgive me. I wasn't myself and have learned the errors of my way."
As someone who had worked with liars a lot before all this, Calli could pick up some weird signals. However, he was just a kid, so it could just be that he was nervous.
"Guys. Meet Brad Tudabone."
Brad jumped up. "Such a big fan." He said as he went to shake all of their hands. "Go, Good! Please, will you not follow me to see the principal?"
Calli raised an eyebrow at the forced way the kid asked the question, her suspicion raised even more when Cole asked the very obvious question where all the teachers where.
Brad answered quickly. "Actually, today is a new Darkly school tradition: Ninja day. we stay out of sight to honor the way of the ninja for showing the light.
The group shared a look, but none of them questioned anything else. They quickly arrived at the door of the principal's office and Brad knocked on the door.
"Principal Noble? Lloyd and the Ninja are here for the ceremony."
There was a short moment of silence before someone answered. "I'll be with you in just a moment."
At this Brad turned to the others. "I should get back to my flowers." He gave a quick bow and then all but dashed off.
"Allright who else thinks something is off?" Calli blurted out as soon as she was out of earshot.
Zane nodded. "Indeed, the absence of teachers is most strange."
"I'll see you now, come in, Come in." The principal's voice rung trough the door.
The group walked in the office, only to have the door close on them. The large chair behind the desk turned around, revealing another young boy.
"Welcome back Lloyd." The kid greeted them with a wicked grin.
Lloyd took a small step back. "Uh, Gene?" He asked slowly.
Gene ignored him and looked at the others, his grin widening a touch as he stood up with a pair of scissors in his hands. And as he went to address them Calli could hear the voice of Inizio in her head. "Breathe and feel the shadows around you, imagine you can disappear into them. Use them to flee your opponent."
And as Gene cut down a bunch of sandbags to take them out, she closed her eyes and did exactly that.
And I'm back on track people :) I really don't know what my problem was with the last episode...Anyhow, We have a new ability for Calli, or somewhat, if she manages to activate it :) and that is all I have to say today...
Oh well, Onto the reviews :)
MightyShipper: I hope you did well on your tests!
Pappilie: I'm hoping it really starts to pick up a bit in the second half of this season but i get where you are coming from. Maybe it is because I do like the seasons from 4 and onward better then the first three with season 3 being one of the weakest in my opinion. As for the theory...huh, you know I hadn't connected those dots yet xD at least in some way. And Don't worry, I got everything, mainly because I have about the same structure in my comments, just jumping from here to there.
I hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter.